Good Medicine

 Read Proverbs 17

I am tempted to just skip everything in this chapter and spend all of my time on the last verse.

Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,

    and discerning if they hold their tongues.

Try it in the King James Version.

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

I could just have some fun with this verse and all the modern-day examples that prove it true. The things that people try to pass off as truth or wisdom or even just fact belie their status and education.

I was thinking that this might be the Sunday to run some video clips of people who we thought might be wise until they opened their mouths.  The problem is that Solomon did not write this proverb with the fool as his intended target audience.

He has written this piece of wisdom to us.  The fool doesn’t care what Solomon has to say, what wisdom has to say, or for that matter what God himself has to say; but we do.

The fool declares in his heart there is no God.  We declare with our lips that Jesus is Lord.  We believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead.  We desire to please God, fulfil his directives, and be known as disciples of our Lord by our love.

The fulfillment of our lives should be in loving one another and in so doing we bring glory to God. We bring glory to God and fulfill his commands by living a life governed by love!

There should be some amens, hallelujahs, and praise the Lords somewhere in there. Our lives are to be given fully in response to the great love of God that we know in Jesus Christ.

What could possibly mess that up?

We might open our mouths.  We might post something online.  We might let our sinful human nature have a say when we should have been silent.

You can have a slip of the tongue and still be saved.  You can say something ridiculous and still live within the favor and grace of God, but why would we want to transgress if we knew better.

Think to the New Testament wisdom that we learned from James.  Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. 

I spent considerable time talking about meeting the basic human need to be understood.  We should be predisposed to listen first.  Let’s meet the needs of others before we take our turn to be heard.

I spent as much time talking about how human anger can not bring about the right living that God desires.  Getting angry feels good for the moment.  It’s a drug with a cheap high.  When you come down from that high, you feel sick.

I spent less time talking about being slow to speak, mostly noting that you can’t be quick to listen if you are quick to speak.  But there is more to being slow to speak.

We get credit for being silent.  We get credit for taking time to think before we speak.  We get credit for deciding not to engage every discussion, conversation, or argument that comes along.

Note Solomon’s syntax as it survives in translation.  Even a fool is thought wise…

He doesn’t say silence makes a fool wise.  He doesn’t say that a fool becomes wise by being silent.  He says even a fool…  This is comparison for our benefit—for the benefit of the wise person who may be tempted to jump into the fray more often than he or she should.

Even the people living in the everything else are given the benefit of the doubt if they just shut up.  We who desire to be wise and practice wisdom should set the bar higher for ourselves.

We should be deliberate in our speech.  If we have something to say it has come after study, prayer, meditation, deliberation, and doing our best to keep in accord with the heart of God before it crosses our lips.

Silence is not sin when it is invested in using the sound mind that God gave us and for consulting the Spirit that lives within us.

The world says you had better speak first, loudest, and longest if you want to get ahead.  Wisdom says to stop and think, consult the Spirit of the living God that resides within you, and when needed seek the counsel of the body of Christ within which you live.

Solomon is speaking to the wise, not to fools.  Knowing this, we will touch on a few of Solomon’s quips of wisdom instead of running video clips of people documenting their foolishness.

Imagine that the only thing you and your family had to eat was the crust of two-day-old bread.  It’s no feast by any means.  When you think of living an abundant life, the crust of day-old bread is not what most of us envision.

But if you had peace in your household—the peace that says I am content in this moment because I belong to the Lord and he has favored my family in such a way that we can enjoy each other—is that not something to be coveted.

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet

    than a house full of feasting, with strife.

Most of the time when I am thinking about abundant life and food in the same thought, there is a ribeye steak involved.  It’s cooked medium, loaded baked potato, ice tea, and go ahead and throw in a salad with ranch dressing just to satisfy those who want me to check more boxes on the food pyramid.

But do I still want my steak dinner if it is at a table marked by acrimony in a house of vitriol and a day that knows no peace?  It’s like being a hungry dog fighting for a scrap of meat with all of the other neighborhood mutts trying to get it instead.  There’s snapping and growling and maybe a scrap of something that would have been enjoyable if you could take a breath before you gulped it down.

Do not discount the power of peace.  Does not the psalmist remind us to be still and know that I am God?

Is there not value in the quietness of family harmony?  The food may be necessary for the meal, but not sufficient to the joy of peace and quiet that can come from something less than a feast.

Let’s touch on the value of speaking the truth in a spirit of love.

A rebuke impresses a discerning person

    more than a hundred lashes a fool.

This takes us back to the beginning of our study.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

People who seek God and his wisdom desire knowledge, wisdom, discipline, and instruction.  They want to grow.  Those who deny God and his wisdom just don’t want anything that contradicts their narrative even when it is the truth.

Again, Solomon uses the fool only for comparative purposes.  You might think that 100 lashes—if you could survive them—would make their point.  Whatever it was that prompted that severe consequence was not likely to happen again.

If you survived 100 lashes you would not repeat the behavior, whatever it was.

Wisdom says that the discerning—those seeking wisdom—welcome correction.  They welcome instruction and discipline—the very things the fool despises.

Does anyone really like to be corrected?  The answer is yes.  I have given you the example of having an editor before.  The editor is the most honest person to review your writing.  You don’t have to agree with everything the editor points out to you, but you are wise to consider it.

I have had some people ask me to edit something they wrote.  I have to precede my answer with a question.

Do you want me to look it over and tell you it’s the best thing ever written or do you want me to edit your work?

If they asked me what’s the difference, I handed them their writing back immediately and said it’s the best thing ever written. 

Most people don’t want to be corrected. They want to be affirmed, but when you see the value in critical, honest, and well-purposed correction, you count it as sliver or gold.  It’s hard to come by and people are not apt to offer it if you do not value it.

I love an editor but I will not seek a golf professional.  I really don’t want to know how bad my golf swing is.  I am content to take the 100 lashes that are inevitable if I hit the links again.  My lashes are figurative and usually amount to a dozen lost balls, sore muscles, and requesting a refund of my greens fees because I never found them.

But if it is something is of value to me, I value correction and instruction and those who help me learn the discipline required to produce good fruit.

A rebuke impresses a discerning person

    more than a hundred lashes a fool.

Let’s wrap up with something upbeat.

A cheerful heart is good medicine,

    but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Yes, this one has a downside—a crushed spirit dries up the bones, but we are focusing on the first part.

Let’s give credit to the author.  He didn’t say everyone wants to be happy.  It didn’t say happiness is the goal of life. Solomon said that a cheerful heart is good medicine.

It’s medicine, not just the end result.  That leads us to believe that a cheerful heart is a choice.

How do we contend with the world that wants us to live in fear?  How do we contend with the things that depress so many? How do we contend with all of the trouble in the world?

Not long before going to the cross to atone of our sins, Jesus told his disciples that they would have trouble in the world.  He didn’t leave it at that though, he said:

Take heart

Take Courage

Be of good cheer

For I have overcome the world.  Jesus said to choose a countenance of cheerfulness even in adversity. 

We can choose our attitude.  We can choose one that lets us get all the life we can out of our day or we can choose one that sucks the life out of life.  It’s your choice.

You can choose a cheerful heart.  Your attitude does not belong to another person.  You can also choose the attitude that sucks the life out of you.

It used to drive me crazy—and yes, I know that is a short drive for me—to read the sign at the elementary school that read:  YOUR ALTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ATTITUDE.

No!  Somebody would have benefited from an editor on that one. The thought to be conveyed was that your attitude determined your altitude.  Choose a good attitude and expect to obtain great heights.

Solomon tells us, this one is just as easy as God’s way and everything else.  You have to understand that you have a choice in order to take the good medicine—the medicine of a cheerful heart or not to take it. Once you understand, why would you want anything less than taking the good medicine? Why would you choose anything else?

So, of all the quips of wisdom in this chapter, what do we take away from our time together?

·       Peace is more valuable than the best feast ever.

·       Silence gives us the benefit of the doubt as far as wisdom goes.  Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

·       Wise people like to have others correct their errors, especially if it is done in a spirit of love.

·       A cheerful heart—our attitude—is our choice. It’s good medicine.

So, let’s think before we speak, listen to constructive criticism, and choose a good attitude each day. Let’s enjoy peace more than the trappings of this world.

Amen.

God Tests the Heart

 Read Proverbs 17

 The nineties abused the term paradigm shift.  Any time that someone changed their mind, it was labeled a paradigm shift.

The turn of the century brought us to metrics.  Everything had to have metrics.  It had to be measured.

As we rolled into the pandemic or plandemic—your choice—we saw mass misuse of the words mitigate and efficacy. 

It seems that we are always trying to quantify something in order to determine its worth.  Sometimes we think new is always better.  Sometimes, we might be right.

Sometimes we focus on things that are measurable.  Sometimes, that helps us.  Sometimes the things we can’t measure are more valuable.

Sometimes we want to reduce the effects of something bad or test the value of things designed to bring change or healing or some measure of prevention.

Do you remember the Greek philosopher who said, “Good enough?”  Of course, you do.  It was Mediocretes.

It seems that we want the purest silver or gold, the fastest processor, the biggest bandwidth, the best and purest of whatever we desire.  These are not new concepts as we see in Proverbs 17:3

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,

    but the Lord tests the heart.

Humankind has come up with all sorts of measures and tests and metrics for the things of this world, but only God can truly test the heart.

If you had 100% attendance at worship but you were just doing time, don’t’ think that God was fooled.

If you are always the fashion statement wherever you go but you turn a blind eye to the kid with worn-out shoes and a coat that he outgrew three years ago, God is not impressed.

If you barely get your bills paid each month but you are faithful in your tithe, God sees that too.

We recall from God choosing a king to replace Saul that he doesn’t particularly care for our outward appearance.  He made us.  He knows what we look like.  He knows where we go and what we do. He knows what other people think and say about us but he is not persuaded by the opinions of men.

God sees the heart.

I have told this story before.  You are getting it again.  Long ago and far away, I was a series commander in charge of 12-15 drill instructors who were in charge of about 300 Marine recruits.  The job was simple.  If a drill instructor didn’t think a recruit was going to make it as a Marine, that young man was planted in front of my desk and I either sent him back in training or sent him home. There was a process and paperwork that went with both.

There just were not too many surprises.  Mama’s boys and punks alike showed up with aspirations of being Marines.  The drill instructors didn’t need any instruction on how to deal with either one, but one day they brought me this young man named Watts.  He stood at attention in front of my desk and he seemed like he was barely four feet tall.

He was likely a little taller than that but surely shorter than the minimum height required for service.  His recruiter obviously noticed.  The medical officer that passed him on his entry physical had to notice, but there he was two days into boot camp standing in front of my desk.

The senior drill instructor gave me a perplexed look and said, “what do we do.”  I thought about it for a moment and replied, “train him.”  I wasn’t sure that he would last too long, especially when we go to the obstacle course or confidence course or jumping in and out of trench lines in field training, but why not give him a chance?  He had gotten this far.

He made it through each phase of training.  He had difficulties with some of the physical aspects, but he never quit and always navigated the obstacle successfully.

A couple weeks before graduation, I went to the office where they assigned occupational specialties.  This kid might graduate but we couldn’t send him to the infantry.  His weapons and equipment would weigh more than he did. 

I managed to get him an assignment in motor transport.  He would either be driving a truck—if he could reach the pedals—or fixing them. All was right in the world, at least for the moment.

There is something in the Marine Corps called the needs of the Corps or the needs of the service, and at that time the Corps needed infantrymen.  Watts was going to the infantry.  There was nothing to be done at this point.

The afternoon before graduation the next morning, the recruits get liberty—a chance to have some unsupervised time off.  When Watts came back to the barracks, his drill instructor found he brought some M&Ms with him.  There was no candy allowed in the barracks, so his senior drill instructor brought him to me with this violation of the rules so close to graduation.

I walked him across the parade deck to another drill instructor I knew that had just started training.  I told Watts that I was sending him back to day 1.  The drill instructor kept Watts in his office cleaning and doing various odd jobs until I came back that evening.

The new recruits had been put to bed and the drill instructor had taken his cover off and it was on the desk.  Watts was in the office standing at attention.

I entered the office.  The drill instructor stood and I looked at Watts and said, “do you want to graduate?”

He replied, “Yssr.” That’s yes sir in recruit speak. 

I looked at the drill instructor’s cover—the very first symbol of authority that every recruit sees upon arrival at boot camp and one that he will never forget.  It was just sitting on the desk. 

I told Watts, “Smash it.”

That should have given him pause to think about the unthinkable order I had given him.  He was six feet away from the desk and in a single leap his fist was coming down on the cover.  The drill instructor was in shock.  I pulled the cover away just before Watt’s fist hit the desktop.

He gave me a perplexed look that said, “what now?”

I told him to get back to his platoon and get ready to graduate in the morning.

There is a term for what I did.  It’s called hazing.  It’s not legal, but in that moment, I could see the heart of this young man and that nothing would stand in his way of becoming a Marine.

After graduation, his mother sought out me and the drill instructors that had trained her son.  She had a plate of homemade cookies for us.

She had known the heart of her son for some time and she also knew that what he wanted was not possible, and yet he had done it in spite of the metrics and rules that governed the world of that day.

I saw Watts a few years later in the commissary at Camp Lejeune.  He had been promoted a couple times, deployed to the Mediterranean, and had a wife and son.  He was as salty and confident as you would expect of a young Marine with his experience.

The hardships of his height were incidental to living the desire of his heart.

Very few people know our hearts, but God does.  God does not get wrapped up in all of the external measurements that the world uses.  God sees the heart. God tests the heart.  God knows the heart.

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,

    but the Lord tests the heart.

Nothing is hidden from God so we had just as well put away our masks, our facades, and our game faces and just be who God knows us to be—who God made us to be.

The Lord tests the heart.

Amen.

Pride precedes destruction

 Read Proverbs 16

We will look at only two proverbs from this chapter this morning.  Here is the first from Proverbs 16:9

In their hearts humans plan their course,

    but the Lord establishes their steps.

We all make plans, some with more vision and detail than others.  Some plan off the cuff.  Some have never taken inventory of their planning skills and just are not aware of how little or how much they plan, but we all plan.

James warns us not to get married to our plans.  That’s Tom’s phraseology of what James had to say. If we plan and the Lord wills it, then that plan is established. 

If there is God’s plan and our plan and the twain never meet, then our plan is not established.  We are spittin’ in the wind.  We may have some success but our plan will never know what it is to produce the fruit that God desires.

Sometimes God establishes our steps to keep us on a smooth highway.  Sometimes we find ourselves on a path of growth.  It’s growth in grace, mind you, but growth normally comes with struggle.

Sometimes God’s way is like training for football.  There are zero dark thirty workouts, time in the weight room, and wind sprints before we get to game time. Sometimes, he just has us walk a certain path while he fights our battles. He opens the hole and we just run through.

So what do we do?  Pray, study God’s word, let it judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart and make our plans the best we can.

Then be tuned into the voice of God’s own Spirit that lives within us.  It is time for our voice—our thoughts to lessen and for God’s to increase. That is most often a process and not an event.

We are made in God’s image.  He is a creative God.  We are a creative people.  We make plans.  He designed us to use the gifts and talents and abilities that we have to produce good fruit, but those plans need to be established by the Lord; otherwise, we might find ourselves building another Tower of Babel.

But what happens if we get a little hard-headed and go on with our plans regardless of where the Spirit is leading us?  C’mon, sometimes we just have a good plan and need to see it through.

That brings us to verse 18.

Pride goes before destruction,

    a haughty spirit before a fall.

Many of you learned this in a singular quip—pride goeth before the fall.

What’s that mean?

Sometimes we are hard-headed and sometimes we insist on our own way.  Determination is a good quality to have if you are attacking an enemy.  Those machine guns and mortars will not stop you.  You will take the hill, but most days we are not in mortal combat.

Most days we are navigating a world when we cross paths with other people and other people’s plans and wills and desires.

Sometimes people do something and we get angry.  We say, I remember quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, but that’s going to play second fiddle to how I feel right now.  Somebody is getting a piece of my mind if not my fist.

Sometimes our human pride and ego and general makeup get in the way of following God’s way.  It’s that whole own understanding thing again.  It feels right because it is our own understanding.

But when we think that our own understanding trumps what God has told us, we have selfish, human, sinful pride.  That pride will lead us to the arena of everything else.

If you have eyes to see and ears to hear that there is God’s way and there is everything else, then you understand that pride is just waiting to sucker punch us to leave God’s way and join the fray of the everything else.

If we are on course following God’s way, our selfish human pride is always lurking to drag us out of the steps that the Lord has established.  We must be on the lookout for giving in to our own understanding.

We have to trust the Lord more and more each day.  We have to give way to our own understanding until our own understanding is in accord with the Lord’s direction for our lives.

We have to be on guard that we don’t deceive ourselves into thinking that our own understanding is automatically in accord with the Lord’s.  A haughty spirit will be at work in this deception.

Jump ahead to Paul’s time and recall his words to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ Jesus. This is how we defeat our selfish pride and a haughty spirit that is trying to get us off course.

When do we see this pride goes before destruction stuff in our lives?

For most, it’s going to be somebody messing with your family—usually your kids.  You want to let them have it.  Sometimes you do.  Sometimes you have that emotional high when you go off on somebody, then you realize what a cheap drug that pride is.  What a poison that a haughty spirit is.

Then you are stuck with your next hard decision.  Defense of my haughty spirit or reconciliation. 

If the blood in your veins is still boiling, the reconciliation seems a long way off.  If you defend an emotional decision, you have anchored yourself to that position adopted in selfish pride.

It’s as if you have put a leg iron on yourself.  At some point you want reconciliation, but you have anchored yourself to the prideful position.  Defending your pride and haughty spirit makes it all the more difficult to free yourself of this anchor.

Better to stick to God’s way even when your own understanding says, Sorry God, this one’s out of your control. 

There is God’s way and there is everything else. If your heart and your plans are seeking God’s way, he will establish your steps.

If you really need to hold on to your own understanding, your pride will lead you into the everything else.

God’s way is for the wise.

The everything else is for the wicked and foolish.

Choose God’s way.

Amen.

 

 

Chapter 16 - Half Way There

 Read Proverbs 16

As you read through this chapter, were you thinking or singing what I was?  I know though you had to be thinking Bon Jovi.  Right?

Whoa, we're half-way there

Whoa, livin' on a prayer

Take my hand, we'll make it. I swear

Whoa, livin' on a prayer

We are halfway there!  Somewhere around verse 16 or 17 in this sixteenth chapter, this song had to come to you.  I know the Sixties and Seventies had the best music, but you can’t discount everything from the Eighties. I know that it hit you when you were reading:

How much better to get wisdom than gold,

    to get insight rather than silver!

The highway of the upright avoids evil;

    those who guard their ways preserve their lives.

What do I have to do, get a karaoke machine?

Whoa, we're half-way there

Whoa, livin' on a prayer                        

Take my hand, we'll make it. I swear

Whoa, livin' on a prayer

Many of you noticed a subtle shift in composition from here is something good and here is the negative contrast, to other parallels, sometimes offering a choice but more often an affirmation.

Let’s do a little verse by verse this morning.  Let’s go old school.

Verse 1.

To humans belong the plans of the heart,

    but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.

I have thought this through.  I have done my cost-benefit analysis. It’s a good plan but I am wise to get a sanity check.

From where?

From God’s word.  From his answers to my prayers.  From my Christian brothers and sisters, that’s where. We have been given this wonderful body of Christ that we live within to help us.

God’s Spirit lives within us and we live in the body of Christ.

So, before I commit with my mouth or my signature or by any other means, let me see if the answer that trusting in the Lord brings me to is the same as my own understanding.

If there is dissonance, I am not ready to commit to the plans of my own construction.  It’s back to prayer, study, and consultation with the Spirt that lives within me and my fellow believers in the body of Christ who will speak the truth in a spirit of love to me.

On to verse 2.

All a person’s ways seem pure to them,

    but motives are weighed by the Lord.

We have been here before.  You, of course, remember Proverbs 3:5-6.  Do you remember what I said about our own understanding?

It makes sense to us.  It is our own understanding.  Of course, it makes sense to us.  You might need a couple extra sermons and a team of psychiatrists if your own understanding doesn’t make sense to you.  It is your own.  You came up with it.

The Christian should have dissonance between his or her own understanding and what the Lord has to say if the two are not in one accord. 

Solomon tells us that God looks beyond our logic and rationale and sees our hearts.  God’s word judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Our motives are weighed by the Lord. 

Verse 3.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans.

Our prayers are mistaken in motive when we ask the Lord to bless our plans when our plans are not in accord with God’s.  We should petition him to bring our plans into accord with his.  Some translations say our thoughts instead of plans.  Thoughts are where our plans begin.

Do you remember taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ Jesus? Do you want your plans to succeed?  Commit them to the Lord.

Don’t argue with the Lord when he makes a few changes to your first, second, or twenty-second draft.

Once his plans and our plans are the same, they are established.  They are confirmed.  They are ready for execution.

When we studied James not too long ago, I gave you a modern paraphrase of what this book full of New Testament wisdom had to say.  We will call it a Spenceaphrase.

Don’t get married to your plan.

Planning is good.  It is mind-developing, but anchoring yourself to your plan gets in the way of getting on board with the best plan—the plan that God desires to establish in your hearts and minds.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans.

On to verse 4.

The Lord works out everything to its proper end—

    even the wicked for a day of disaster.

Is anyone catching a theme here?  The Lord has it all worked out.  He is saying, “I’ve got this.”

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Sound familiar?

God says, I’ve got this!  Even for those who are anchored in the everything else. I’ve got this!   Ok, that’s another Spenceaphrase, but you have grown accustomed to those by now.

So, we trust that God will direct our steps.  Let’s also trust him to take care of those who continue to rebel against him—the wicked.  Sometimes the latter part here is tougher than the former, but what happens to the wicked is not our burden to bear.

Verse 5.

The Lord detests all the proud of heart.

    Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Here is the follow-up to I’ve got this. The Lord knows our heart and despite directions to the contrary knows that we drift away into wondering if the wicked really get what they deserve.  Our own understanding thinks that our rewards will be lessened if the wicked don’t get condemned in accordance with our plans—with our own understanding.

Solomon tells us not to worry about that part.  Be sure of this.  They will not go unpunished.

Verse 6.

Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;

    through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.

Now just hold your holy horses right there!  I thought it was the blood of bulls and goats and sacrifices and that the law required the shedding of blood that atoned for sin back then.

There were required sacrifices.  There was a Day of Atonement.  A lot of blood flowed to atone for sins, but the actual atonement for our sins came in love.  We call him Jesus.  We call him Lord.  John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

God loved us first.  Whether it’s in sacrifice, confession, profession, baptism or other acts, we must realize that these are in response to the great love of God.

We hit the trifecta on this verse.  Love, faith, and fear of the Lord keep us in God’s ways and out of the everything else.

Since we are talking faith and faithfulness, let’s review Hebrews 11:1.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Of course, I can’t pass up the connection to Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This verse gave us the fear of the Lord, faith, and reminded us that the forgiveness of sins is rooted in love.

We will wrap up with verse 7.

When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way,

    he causes their enemies to make peace with them.

Sometimes, we can think of God’s way as walking to school—uphill, in the snow, both ways—just like our parents did.  But it’s not always like that.  Sometimes, God removes obstacles from our path.  Sometimes God fights our battles for us and our enemies have no choice but to make peace with us.

Remember that God’s way is for our own good.  Sometimes the Lord lets us grow in our battles.  Sometimes he causes our enemies to make peace with us.  Consider this in the context of for our own good.

How can the Lord take pleasure in our ways?  Our ways have grown to be as his ways.  It’s the whole on earth as it is in heaven concept.  The whole earth isn’t there yet, but we can be.

Our ways can please God because we have taken on his ways.  It just so happens that this is for our own good.

Some of you are thinking that the next couple of verses would enhance the context.  Some are thinking it’s time for lunch.  The next two verses do make for excellent discussion and it is time for lunch.  You are blessed to have a lunchtime topic for conversation.

Better a little with righteousness

    than much gain with injustice.

In their hearts humans plan their course,

    but the Lord establishes their steps.

Don’t let these opportunities for further discussion pass. This model of reading the same chapter every day and having the wisdom of God on our hearts should bring it to the forefront of our conversation.

There is God’s way and it’s for your own good.

There is everything else.  That’s where the mines are.

Today we spent a little more time with Solomon on God’s way and its blessings and getting our thoughts and plans into accord with his.  We spent more time on things that are for our own good.

Amen.

God's Way--It's for our own good

 Read Proverbs 15

Solomon composed quite a collection of quips and comments for this chapter.  We find several on the wise and the foolish, which we discussed in the first service.  We see discernment and correction but we also see many quips about wickedness. We see counsel regarding gentleness and I return once again to there is God’s way and there is everything else.

Consider verse 24 especially in the context of God’s way and everything else.

The path of life leads upward for the prudent

    to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead.

I have been preaching God’s way and everything else ever since we began the Proverbs. Is this the first that we have heard of God’s way being better for us?

Of course not.  Consider the words of God delivered to his people through Moses.

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

God told his own chosen people who had come out of bondage in Egypt to do things his way and only his way.  Why?  It’s for your own good.

It’s for your own good!  Living God’s way is for your own good.  The everything else is marked by death and destruction.

God’s way is for the wise.  Who are the wise?  Those who accept and receive and follow God’s way. Wow!  That sounds like circular logic, but understand that it’s a good circle.  It’s God’s circle and worth the buy-in.  Be wise.

But this is Old Testament wisdom, right?

Let’s turn to the words of a fisherman you should know well. This will be from Peter’s second letter.

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. (Now there’s a man after my own heart.  He is writing to stimulate good thinking). I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (Just because we live in this age of grace does not mean we disregard the directions we have received before).

Now back to Peter’s words.  Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

How do you forget creation and the flood? People deliberately forget the mighty acts of God and say where is his coming? How do you omit creation and the flood?  Deliberately.  If these things don’t fit your narrative, you just leave them out.  It’s a deliberate choice and not an oversight. It’s right on target for today.

Consider Solomon’s words in this context.

Mockers resent correction,

    so they avoid the wise.

The mockers, the scoffers, the fools, and those who hate wisdom simply avoid the wise and the facts for they have no sound basis for argument.  We live in this world that both Solomon and Peter describe.

What can we do in the midst of this unrighteous turmoil?

We don’t dive into every argument with a fool.  We are counseled against this.

We live lives that the Lord would find holy, blameless, and spotless.  It’s an impossible task on our own, but with God, we can stay the course.  With God, when we miss the mark, we confess and God is faithful and just to forgive.  He puts us back in our race of faith.

Peter tells us that we have been warned ahead of time what is coming and how much the world will contest the will and righteousness of God.  His counsel is to be on guard so that we won’t be carried away by the spirit of lawlessness that will surround us and we must know how deceptive it will be. 

It will not attack head-on but use subtly to undermine what you know to be truth.

Anchor yourself in the knowledge of Christ Jesus and grow in the grace that he has given to us.

What does all this mean?

There is God’s way and there is everything else.  We may venture into the everything else from time to time, but the grace of God that we know in Christ Jesus invites us to return to God’s ways. Return to God’s way.

In other messages and commentaries, I have compared everything else to a minefield.  I don’t know if you have ever been in a minefield, but if you haven’t don’t put it on your bucket list. In Iraq, you had now you see me, now you don’t minefields.

The wind moved the sand and either hid or uncovered the minefields and the cleared roads that went through them.    That could be interesting.  I served at the end of the first Gulf War and was assigned to the United Nations mission in Iraq and Kuwait. 

One day, I was coming back to my sector having visited a patrol base in the central sector.  I had a captain from Indonesia with me and he wanted to drive.  I let him drive and after a couple dozen kilometers, we hit some sand drifts.  He was doing ok for a while and then got stuck in a big drift.

If you drive enough in the desert, you will probably get stuck at some point.  This young captain popped out of the vehicle grabbed the shovel attached to the back of the Land Cruiser and was about to thrust it into the sand surrounding the front of the vehicle when I grabbed the shaft of the shovel.

The captain gave me a funny look until I showed him the metal objects that looked like olive drab softballs.  They were cluster bombs that did not explode on impact.  They were not duds.  It’s just that the sand cushioned them enough to let them land undetonated. They were designed to explode when they hit a hard surface such as an armored vehicle.

The blade of a shovel also works just as well.

Do you know how long it takes to move about a quarter yard of sand?  About two and a half hours if you are doing it in handful size scoops, some of them with a cluster bomb in them.

It wasn’t a minefield by design, but it met the qualifications and produced the same results.  You wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. You wanted to get back on the safe path. You did this with all deliberate speed.

The path of life leads upward for the prudent

    to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead.

There is God’s way.  It may seem like it is uphill most of the time, but it leads to life.  The everything else leads to the realm of the dead.

God has given us direction for our own good.  Sometimes it came as commands and directives.  Sometimes it came as wisdom.  Sometimes it came in the flesh as God with us—the only flesh that has ever fulfilled the law. 

But know that what God has given us in commands, directives, wisdom, and even in his Son has always been for our own good.

Doing things God’s way is for our own good.

When you think of this mantra that I think resonates with most of you by now, think for my own good whenever you think of God’s way.

Think of landmines when you venture into the everything else.

God’s way—for your own good.

Everything else—landmines.

The path of life leads upward for the prudent

    to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead.

Amen.